Burning waters
by NewPerspecitve
Summary: When Katniss and Finnick meet, Katniss hates him. He's arrogant and can't seem to keep his mouth shut. But what if he's her shot at staying alive?
1. Prologue

A/N: This is MAJOR AU, Finnick and Katniss meet before the actual start of her first games, while she's at training, (Peeta doesn't really matter in this, I'm not really sure what's going to happen to him in this, sorry) but instead of her forced romance with Peeta, she has one with Finnick, the district four mentor, however, she can't stand Finnick, but he wants nothing more than to get closer to her. Let's see how this goes...

Some Info to remember: Finnick is really 24 in the books, but in this version he won the 69th hunger games and this is the 74th hunger games, so he's going to be 19 years old, Katniss is 16 so the age gap isn't as large. Annie in this isn't going to be a big part of Finnick's life, he mentored her in her games, but he never felt any romantic feelings towards her, they're just friends. Annie isn't a mentor, because she isn't mentally stable, so it's Finnick and Mags that are the mentors. Peeta and Katniss never have a romance in this, it's KatnissXFinnick.

 _12/26/15_

* * *

 **Prologue:**

Finnick Odair smirked lazily as he watched his tributes emerge from the dark tunnel in their impressive chariot. Their stylists had dressed them in fishnets, similar to how he had been portrayed at his games, however, they weren't showing as much skin, it was much more modest. He seemed to think that they had a pretty good chance at surviving, and he was betting pretty heavily on their win, based on the cheers of the crowd when they came into view.

He leant backwards in his chair, closing his eyes and practically throwing his head backwards as he relaxed, not bothering to look at the other tributes, most of the time, after one, two and four, there wasn't much to go on.

That's when Mags, the other mentor from four, started to wildly shake at his arm, tying to get his attention.

"Mags, wha-" Finnick's words caught in his throat when he looked down at the newest chariot.

It was the final chariot, the tributes from district 12, but his eyes were locked on the female tribute. He had to admit, she was rather pretty, but that wasn't the thing that was keeping his complete attention on her, when the two tributes had exited the tunnel leading to the open area their outfits had completely lit up in flames, engulfing the tributes entirely.

The boy looked to be a little shaky, like he was nervous, but he waved to the crowd, smiling comfortably, but the girl, she was holding herself strongly, her shoulders squared and her feet rooted to the chariot, but she was smiling, and waving to the audience, even going as far as to blow kisses and catch the roses thrown from who knows where. She was on fire! Quite literally...

And Finnick couldn't stop staring.

He was completely entranced, like there was nothing else in the arena but the two of them, he didn't even hear what President Snow was saying to the tributes, he only had eyes for her.

For Katniss.

For the girl on fire!

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Okay! That's that! Hope you enjoyed! I'll have more up soon enough!  
Happy Holidays to everyone too3


	2. Chapter 1

_12.26.15_

* * *

 **Chapter 1:**

Katniss let out a deep puff of air as she followed Haymitch down the long hallway and into the elevator at the end of the hall. Peeta walked alongside her, almost happily, which she couldn't figure out how he was taking all of this so well... it was madness! Haymitch ushered the two of them into the elevator, pressing a small circular button on the side of the elevator which lit up underneath his finger and caused them to plummet down towards the floor. "Remember you two," Haymitch warned. "This is the time when you get to introduce yourselves to all of the other mentors, so try to make a good impression. There's five minute sessions for each mentor and you two will go separately, each tribute to a mentor." He explained.

She thought that this was a bit strange, because this part was never televised and no one ever spoke of it, Katniss didn't know it was a thing they had to do until the day before! Peeta, on the other hand, seemed a bit more curious about the whole thing; almost eager! "How come we've never heard about this Haymitch?" He asked.

Their mentor sighed through his nose. "It's not traditional, that's why. This was started the year Finnick Odair won the games, I think it was his idea... so it's only been around for about four years?" He said, unsure.

Katniss couldn't help but wonder why Finnick was so important out of all the victors, why had he been able to start a new tradition in the capitol? Sure she'd heard of him, apparently he was the most popular victor in the history of all of the winners of the Hunger Games, most said it was because of his so called stunning looks, but Katniss couldn't really remember his games. She was a bit too young and frankly, she'd always hated watching them, so why bother remember them?

Peeta still continued to press on the subject however. "Well, what about for district 12? Since we only have one mentor, what do the other tributes do then?" He asked, his curiosity beginning to get on Katniss' nerves.

Apparently, it was beginning to annoy Haymitch a bit too. "Look, it doesn't matter to you, you two already know me so you won't have time to talk to me, it all gets worked out, don't worry about it, and stop asking so many questions. We've been through this several times already." He said, just as the elevator came to a stop down on their designated floor.

Haymitch lead the two of them from the elevator and through another door before turning back to face the two of them. "Okay, you two will be placed with the other tributes when you go through this door, from there on you'll be shown through the doors to talk to the respective mentors from each district. Altogether it will take about an hour, and it's not as bad as you think it'll be." He gave a brief explanation, and before Peeta could spout off any more questions Haymitch said: "Now, off you go. Oh! and try not to pick any fights with anyone... you're trying to stay alive."

Katniss and Peeta walked through the doorway, and into a much larger room. The room seemed to be circular in shape, the chairs in the center of the room displayed so each one was facing a door to the outside against one of the walls. Katniss quickly found the chair that she was supposed to be sitting in, next to Peeta and the Thresh from district 11. She was sitting across from a door that read 11, she didn't know what mentor was in there, but she was about to find out. When she and Peeta had entered the room, the chairs in the center of the room hadn't quite all been filled yet, so they were probably waiting for the rest of the tributes to come into the room.

She and Peeta sat in silence, along with the other tributes, until the last two tributes from district 4 came in the room. Over the speakers from above them there was a woman's voice. "Tributes, please stand and walk into the room in front of you." Came the almost electronic voice over the loudspeaker.

Katniss stood, ignoring Peeta who was trying to catch her eye, and walked up to the first door, trying to mentally prepare herself for the awkward meeting she was about to have with the district 11 mentor.

The room she was in was slim, but fanned out towards the back, most likely due to the circular shape of the room and having to compensate for the other rooms. She walked farther into the room, looking at the male district mentor from 11. He looked rather large, well built, that is, he had dark skin and short hair, but there was a wide smile on his face, a rather welcoming smile.

"Ah! The Girl on Fire, Katniss Everdeen!" He cried, giving a hearty laugh as he said so. "Nice to meet you!"

He extended his arm for her to shake, grabbing her hand in his strong grip immediately as she extended it back to him, nearly shaking her arm right off.

"I'm Chaff, I'm Thresh's mentor for this year." He told her, sitting back down in his cushioned chair and motioning for Katniss to do the same. "So, how are you liking the capitol?" He asked, a wide smile still on his face, despite Katniss having not said anything. "And you don't have to lie." He said, a bit more seriously this time, which Katniss was grateful for, he was from 11, he knew what it was like to live in a less privileged district then come to the capitol and have her whole life changed overnight.

Katniss offered him a small smile. "It's very beautiful... but honestly..." she hesitated a bit, not sure if she should tell him her actual thoughts. "but I hate it."

He offered her a sad smile, nodding his head understandingly as he shifted around on his chair. "Exactly how I felt in my games, I'm sorry, Katniss." he said understandingly.

There was silence for a moment between the two of them as Chaff seemed to reminisce in his time in the games before Katniss cleared her throat. "Thank you." She murmured, looking down at the ground.

Before either of them could say anything else a bell above the two of them went off, signaling the end of their time together. Katniss smiled at Chaff before shaking his hand, but as she did so she was pulled into a tight hug by the enormous man. "Good luck, fire girl." He said before gesturing towards the door on the left side of the room.

"Thank you." Katniss said once more before going into the other room, to meet the other district 11 mentor.

She walked into the next room, and was greeted by the face of a smiling woman. She was very pretty, but a little bit older looking, her dark skin and short hair matched Chaff's in a way that almost made them look related. "Hello, Ms Everdeen, I'm Seeder." She introduced, her tone not as warm and welcoming as Chaff's but somehow nice all the same, altogether, she seemed to be a little bit harder.

Katniss offered her a polite smile, realizing that so far Haymitch was right, this wasn't all that hard. "Nice to meet you Seeder... you're Rue's mentor?" She asked cautiously, making sure that she got the girl's name right.

Seeder nodded solemnly. "Yes I am, it's a shame, she's so young." She said, looking down at the ground sadly. "All of you are." She added as more of an after thought.

Katniss nodded in agreement, Seeder was completely right, the two of them sat down in the chairs opposite each other before Seeder spoke up again. "So, 11 as your training score? That's very impressive." Seeder praised, and as Katniss opened her mouth to speak, Seeder spoke up. "Don't worry, I'm not asking you to tell me what you did in there, I'm not spying for my tributes." She said with a small teasing smile.

This made Katniss feel like she could open up a bit more, Seeder seemed to be very nice. "Thank you, but I'm just as shocked as everyone else." She said with a small laugh, trying to lighten the mood a little bit. "But Rue had a very impressive score as well... 8 right?" She asked, trying to spin the topic of conversation away from herself.

Seeder smiled at the praise, like she was proud of her tribute, which she should be, since Rue was so young. "Yes, we were all very impressed, she even got Thresh to smile." She told her.

Katniss was about to ask her another question but the bell from above them rang again. "Good luck, Ms. Everdeen." Seeder said, shaking Katniss's hand.

"Good luck to you too." Katniss said, she wasn't quite sure why she said it but it felt like it was the right thing to say, and thankfully it was, she could tell due to Seeder's grateful smile.

She was then forced to leave the room, moving on to district 10's mentors. The next few mentor's didn't really stick in her head, but there was one male from 8 named Woof, an older man, that stuck in her head. he didn't really say anything special, except for the fact he had an interesting name.

From 11 to 8 she was mainly asked about her training score, no one being as nice as Seeder was about it, they seemed to be more interested in finding out what she did than how she felt about it. But once Katniss got to district 7 did the interesting mentors finally show up.

When Katniss met with the male mentor, Blight, she found that he wasn't that interesting, but he didn't bother talking to her about her training score, he seemed to be pretty curious in how she volunteered for her sister for, which made her realize that she'd rather be talking about her training score... but it wasn't Blight that was really the interesting one, it was Johanna...

Katniss left Blight to go into the next room, where a slim woman was waiting for her. She was sitting, it was the first mentor who hadn't been standing up when she entered, not that she minded, but Johanna was glaring, like she had a permanent scowl on her face.

"And here's another one!" She cried, almost to herself more than to Katniss.

Katniss walked over to the chair across from Johanna, feeling slightly awkward. "What do you mean another one?" She asked curiously.

Johanna scoffed, sitting up from her slouching position and squinting her eyes at Katniss, as if she were studying her. "What do you think? Another tribute! This whole thing is so stupid! The bloody capitol doesn't care about us, do you really think they do? For God's sake, they're putting all of you in an arena to kill you!" She cried, clearly she was one to hold a grudge, but Katniss could definitely understand why. She remembered Johanna's games, they were brutal... she was brutal, but they made her that way, it's not like it was her fault.

Although it was out of the ordinary, Katniss didn't bother to shout at her. "Of course they don't care about us..." Katniss scoffed, she really understood where Johanna was coming from. "Like you said, if they did we wouldn't be in this hell hole."

Johanna gave a little laugh, smirking at Katniss. "Huh, you actually know what you're talking about 12..." Johanna said, sounding like she was almost impressed with Katniss. "Well, at least there's one tribute here who knows what's wrong with all of this." She muttered.

Katniss frowned at this. "No, they have to know this is wrong... well maybe not the careers, but the other districts have to." She said, trying to stick up for Peeta who she knew was in the room just before her, hopefully he didn't say anything in favor of the capitol... but who knows, Peeta's way too nice to be in this.

Before Johanna could shout about anything else, the bell rang and Katniss was forced to leave, without a handshake, but that's not surprise. The next two rooms went by quickly, it was the morphlings from 6, they didn't speak much, but they were still nice enough, both of them shaking her hand, but for Katniss, the whole this was wildly uncomfortable, and she was thankful to be out of there and onto five, which wasn't much more interesting.

It wasn't until district four that she was engaged again, it was the oldest mentor she'd seen yet, but the nicest by far. However, the woman didn't speak, at all, upon entering, the old woman hugged Katniss, smiling widely at her.

Katniss was forced to initiate conversation, with only yes or no answer questions. "So, are you the one who mentored Finnick in his games?" she asked.

The old woman nodded, and that's when it hit Katniss, she knew who he was. "Oh, I know you, you're Mags." She said, sounding rather proud with herself about remember her name, the old woman, or Mags, smiled and nodded animatedly.

The rest of their time went by the same way, by Katniss asking Mags questions and Mags either nodding her head or shaking it, but she was pleasant company, and Katniss was rather upset when she had to leave him.

Mags had patted her on the back and gently pushed her towards the next door, like she was eager for her to move on. "Bye then, Mags, it was nice meeting you." Katniss said before walking through the next door, and onto the mentor that would change her life.

She looked down as she closed behind her, not bothering to look at the next mentor at the moment, but then he spoke. "Well, looks like the girl on fire has finally decided to grace herself with my presence." A cocky, smooth, deep voice rang out.

When she turned around, she nearly jumped back in shock to find that the infamous Finnick Odair was standing about a food away from her, majorly invading her personal space.

"I'm Finnick, Finnick Odair, and you're Katniss Everdeen." he said, not waiting for her to extend her hand, he just snatched it from her side and pulled it up to his lips, kissing the flesh there. "Why don't you have a seat?" He offered, pulling her by the hand over to the two chairs for tribute and mentor and finally letting go of her hand when he sat down.

Katniss cautiously sat down, already not liking the man in front of her, he was too cocky, too arrogant, too full of himself, she was disgusted.

He didn't even wait for her to speak up again before he started to talk again. "So, girl on fire, huh? I haven't heard of such an uproar over a tribute since... well since me." He grinned, showing her both rows of his pearly, perfect teeth.

She glared at him, not liking his perfect face, his sandy blond hair, his deep green eyes, his.. perfectness. "I thought it'd be time for a new favorite." Katniss spat at him, making sure she never stopped glaring at him as she did so.

Finnick seemed to reel back in surprise for a moment before grinning widely at her, laughing as he did so. "I knew I liked you 12!" he chuckled. "You may just win these games, but don't tell my tributes I told you that, they may not like it that much." He winked again.

"You know, it's too bad that we only get five minutes together Katniss... I like you, and I'm sure you like me too." Finnick smirked, leaning forwards in his chair as if he wanted to get closer to her. "Tell you what, why don't we go out together, after all this tribute-mentor stuff is done? I know a great new restaurant down on the main road." He offered.

Katniss furrowed her brow, how could one person be this full of himself!? "No thank you," she said, trying not to sound rude, since he could make the games much harder on her, being the most popular victor... since... well, forever! "I'm not interested."

Now it was his turn to frown. "You don't want to? Really?" He asked quietly, more to himself than to her, like he was confused. "Are you sure?" He asked, wagglilng his eyebrows at her.

Without hesitation, Katniss nodded. "I'm positive." Then she swiftly stood from her seat, looking for the first time at the timer which was just about to finish its countdown. "Bye Odair." She growled at him, just as the bell went off.

Before she could run into the next room, Finnick had sprung up and grabbed her by the hand, pulling her around to face him. "Can't wait for our date." He said with a wink, once again kissing the skin on her hand.

Katniss didn't bother to argue with him anymore, she just wanted to get away from him and his perfectness. She tugged her hand from his and turned away from him, heading into the district 3 room.

The next three districts went by the fastest, the district 3 mentors were both nice enough, but they were smart, they had both asked her questions that she hardly knew how to answer, and she was pretty happy once she was able to leave the two of them. After that came the career mentors, which she was dreading the most, they all wanted to know how she got the 11 in her trainign score, and they were blunt about it, of course they were all trying to help their tributes, but finally that was done and she was left to walk into Haymitch's room, thankful to be back with someone she knew.

When she left the district one mentor Cashmere, she found herself in Haymitch's room, Peeta was already there, most likely waiting for her and him and Haymitch were talking about some of the mentors together. "Hey sweetheart," Haymitch greeted. "Good to see you made it out alive."

Katniss glared at him, plopping herself down in the empty seat. "Yeah, you forgot to mention how horrible some of those people were." She accused, glaring at Haymitch.

Peeta chose then to spoke up. "I didn't think it was all that bad, most of them were pretty nice." He said downright innocently.

Katniss snorted loudly. "Nice? Please, most of them were terrible." She scoffed.

Haymitch nodded, "I agree with Katniss." He said.

Peeta threw his arms in the air, standing up from his chair. "But Haymitch! I thought most of them were your friends?!" He accused.

Haymitch seemed like he couldn't even hold in his laughter. "I know, but they're pretty terrible." He said calmly, grinning as he did so, and this time Katniss couldn't help but let out a small chuckle.

It was then that Haymitch stood up with Peeta and motioned for Katniss to do the same. "We should get going then, it's lunch time anyways, we can go get you two some food." He told the two of them, starting to walk towards the door to lead them out of the room.

Katniss stood up and followed Haymitch and Peeta who went out of the room together, both continuing their previous conversation about the victors, while Katniss trailed behind them.

Haymitch once again took them into the elevator and down even lower in the enormous building, to the dining hall. "Effie's going to want you two to sit with her, I'm sure you'll be able to find her." He said, with a small laugh.

Once the elevator opened the three of them went their own ways, all going to find the food that they'd like. Katniss went off towards the left side of the enormous room in hopes that she'd be able to find something that she'd want to eat.

She made her way to the seafood station, ready to try something new, since in district 12 there wasn't any seafood. Katniss ordered herself something called phyllo-wrapped halibut fillets with lemon scallion sauce, honestly, her favorite part of the capitol was the food.

"Look at who's here, hoping that you'd find me huh?"

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Thanks for reading!


	3. Chapter 2

_1.1.16_

Thanks to all of those who reviewed! I really appreciated it, please enjoy this next chapter!

* * *

 **Chapter 2:**

"Look at who's here, hoping that you'd find me huh?" A rich, deep voice said from too closely behind her.

Katniss spun around, her tray of food nearly falling from her hands as she jumped backwards in an attempt to move away from whoever was talking her her. She brought her head up to look at the tall man standing behind her, and her look of surprise suddenly turned back into her famous scowl. "In your dreams, Odair." She spat at him.

Finnick chuckled, smirking sloppily at her. "Dreams can become reality, fire girl." He said with a wink.

She rolled her eyes. "Not today, fishboy." She growled, before spinning around and walking away from him.

He was quick to catch up to her, falling in step with her as she tried to pick out Effie from the crowd, but she was unable to, with all of the other capitol citizens and their insane styles, Effie was hidden. "Aw, common Katniss, why don't you just join me for a meal? I could show you the best fish food in this place... it's not what's on your plate, by the way." He offered. "What you'd want to get would be the grilled salmon with scallion sauce, that's the best meal." He told her, standing way too close to Katniss for her liking.

Before she could tell him to shove off again, Finnick had wrapped an arm around her shoulder and steered her back towards the seafood area, ripping the tray from her arms and tossing it in the trash before she could object.

"Hey!" Katniss protested, pushing his arm off of her and taking a step away from him. "What the hell are you doing?" She demanded.

Finnick didn't even act like what she had said phased him. "Common Katniss, let's have lunch together and then, if you still don't like me, I'll leave you alone." He told her, sending her a knowing look. "But let's be serious here, who can resist this." He said, striking a ridiculous pose in hopes of making her at least crack a smile.

Katniss didn't laugh, and she didn't smile, her glare remained prominent. "Fine Odair, one meal. If I still don't want to talk to you after that, you leave me alone." She dealt, holding out her hand for him to shake.

With a smirk, Finnick captured her hand in his tight grip, but instead of shaking her hand, he used it to jerk her body towards him, so he was able to wrap his arm around her waist. Finnick put his mouth right up by her ear, and Katniss hoped no one would notice her in the compromising position with the known sex symbol. "It's a deal." He whispered, his mouth brushing against the skin of her ear.

Quickly, Katniss jerked herself away from him, and thankfully, Finnick let her. She knew he was much stronger than her, she wouldn't have been able to get out of his hold unless he let her.

Without saying anything, Finnick slung his arm back around her shoulders, leading her back toward the seafood section. "So, our first date, how classy." He whispered, gently tugging her alongside him.

Katniss had to fight the urge to resist, but the constant reminder, that she'd be able to keep him away from her if she spent one meal with him was a good motivator. "Let's get this straight, this is not a date." She growled.

Once more, Katniss found herself in the line for the fish food, feeling somewhat like she'd been tricked into doing this, but he did promise to leave her alone if she could make it through this one meal, just one meal. "Aw, are you sure?" He pouted.

Before she could reply, Finnick had gotten them both a meal of the grilled salmon with scallion sauce, and then led them over to a single table, where him and Katniss could be alone, and hopefully not distrubed.

They both sat down, and Katniss hoped that she would be to eat quickly. She was about to shove some of the food into her mouth, when Finnick stopped her. "No, wait for a moment, it'll be too hot right now."

Silently, Katniss cursed, that emanate she had to wait even longer before she could eat and hopefully get away from him. But then, Finnick took it upon himself to initiate conversation once more.

"So, at the mentor-tribute meeting we never did get to discuss anything other than the two of us... d'you wanna tell me how you got that 11?" He asked, his voice expressing actual curiosity, it didn't sound like he wanted to use the information to his advantage, at least.

But all the same, she still wasn't going to tell him. "You'll figure it out in the games." She said, trying to match his cockiness.

Finnick laughed. "I do hope I get the chance to see that... and when you win, you can come tell me yourself." He said.

Katniss shot him a look of confusion, shouldn't he be saying that his tributes were going to win, not her? "What?" She asked, dropping her glare for just a moment.

He put his elbows on the table and his chin in his hands. "Common, Katniss, don't tell me you don't know. You've got the whole capitol rooting for you, you've got more sponsors than any other tribute and the games haven't even started yet. If the odds aren't in your favor, I don't know who's they're in." he told her, sounding serious for the first time since they'd begun talking.

She decided to brush off his seriousness, he was probably just playing with her. "Yeah, I'm a real Odair, aren't I?" She said with a roll of her eyes.

Finnick blew a stream of air at her face, causing her to flinch backwards. "You could be." He said, then he picked up his fork and shoved a bit of salmon into his mouth.

Katniss brushed the hair out of her face that had fallen when he blew on her, then she cautiously picked up her fork and ate some of the salmon, and when she did, she had to resist the urge to moan, especially since she was with Finnick Odair.

"So, how do you like it?" He asked expectantly, as he put some more fish in his mouth, slowly pulling the fork back out and licking it downright seductively as he did so.

She glared at him, shaking her head. "It's okay." She said begrudgingly, not wanting to admit that he was right.

"See, that's when it's good to be on a date with someone from district four." He smirked, as he continued to eat. Katniss also continued to eat, happy to be able to distract herself from Finnick and instead eat, so she could have a good reason to leave sooner.

He seemed to notice her trick as he tried to stop her. "Hey, hey, hey, slow down there, Katniss. You'll end up choking." He said, reaching across the table and pulling her fork away from her.

She growled at him. "Give it back Odair." She said, hoping that she sounded threatening.

But all Finnick did was laugh, apparently he didn't find her threatening at all. "You're cute when you're trying to be intimidating." He smiled, setting the fork back down on her plate.

Katniss scowled at him, gritting her teeth in anger. "Shut up." She mumbled, picking her fork back up and continuing to eat the delicious salmon.

Finnick sounded like he couldn't even hold back his laughter. "It's okay, I know you find me cute too." He told her with another one of his cocky winks and a large grin on his face.

Upon looking down, Katniss realized that she was halfway done with her meal, and she was already feeling full, like she couldn't eat another bite. "well, it's been terrible eating with you, but I think I'm done, so nice knowing you Odair." She said, standing up and picking up her tray.

Immediately, Finnick stood up as well, practically running in front of her. "Hey, hey, hey, we're not done yet, I still haven't finished." He virtually whined.

Finnick grabbed her plate and set it back down on the table behind them, then he grabbed her arms and pushed her backwards gently. "Katniss, it's just a few more minutes, I'm not that bad." He grinned, and that's when Katniss noticed how close their bodies were, they were too close, his body was just about an inch away from hers.

She gulped, hoping that Finnick didn't notice how uncomfortable she was. "I'll stay, only if you get away from me." she said, placing his hands on his shoulders in an attempt to place some space between the two of them.

Thankfully, he supplied, chuckling as he took a step backwards to give her her needed space. "If that's all you want." He told her, walking around to the other side of the table. "Besides, you don't really want this date to be over do you? Most girls would be dying to spend five minutes in my company."

Katniss wanted nothing more than to smack the smug smile off his face at the moment. "You're not serious, are you?" She asked, her mouth nearly falling open in shock.

Finnick's eyes widened and his eyebrows raised. "Of course I'm not, I'm completely serious." he said, once again turning serious.

This threw her off for a second, but Katniss was quickly able to pull herself together again. "Shut up." she repeated, rolling her eyes for what felt like the millionth time in the past twenty minutes.

As soon as he turned serious he was back to cocky. "No need to be rude Katniss, I only know one thing that would make me actually shut up." He said with a wink, his eyes fluttering down to her lips.

Katniss grit her teeth to attempt to hide her blush, but he still saw it nonetheless. "Is that a blush, girl on fire?" He asked, smiling proudly to himself.

"Just finish your salmon." She enforced, taking a sip of the water that had been placed on their table.

Finnick obliged, continuing to eat his salmon now at a more constant pace, and Katniss finally allowed her hopes to get up, he was almost done. When he took the last bite Katniss gave the first genuine smile of the night. "Well, looks like I can go now, nice knowing you." She said, getting ready to stand.

He stood as well, holding up his hands as if to stop her. "Wait, what about dessert?" He asked trying to sound innocent.

Katniss scoffed at him. "You don't have dessert for lunch." She groaned.

Finnick sighed, like he was somewhat disappointed before he stood up alongside Katniss. "Alright fire girl, you win, out lunch date has come to its untimely end." He said, grabbing her hands once more and kissing them both, before swinging them up to his chest.

She tried to pull her hands away from him almost immediately, but Finnick didn't let her. "So I think it's safe to say that we'll be meeting again." he said with his signature smug smile.

Katniss wanted to scream. "What?! No! You told me that when this meal was done that you'd leave me alone." She demanded, once again trying to tug her arms away.

But still he didn't let her leave. "Ah, I said if you still don't like me after our meal I'll leave you alone, but you, Miss Everdeen, you do like me!" He said happily, maneuvering his face closer to hers, their noses nearly brushing against one another.

Finally, Katniss was able to pull herself away from him, but she caught him more off guard, as she stepped away from him, gaining her personal space back once more. "No, I don't... I don't like you any more than I did thirty minutes ago. I've won, you've lost, now leave me alone." She demanded.

Before Finnick could reply she stormed away from him, but she could still hear his condescending laughter as she walked away, mocking her.

But thankfully, he didn't bother following her. Katniss felt exhausted at that point, and all she wanted to do was rest before her interview tonight. At least she had time to rest while the mentors had their interview before she had to go through with the tribute interviews.

So Katniss made her way up to district 12's personal floor and back into her room, ready to, hopefully get a few hours rest before her own interview later that night.

* * *

Thanks for reading!


End file.
